When you export a DNS zone from Go Daddy, there is some unusual formatting. IF you don’t fix it before importing it into DNS Made Easy (and probably other hosts), you may find that DNS queries are not resolving as expected. In my case, that meant email was not getting through.
Here are a few records as exported from Go Daddy:
; A Records
@ 3600 IN A 173.140.90.123
; CNAME Records
www 3600 IN CNAME @
autodiscover 3600 IN CNAME autodiscover.outlook.com
lyncdiscover 3600 IN CNAME webdir.online.lync.com
; MX Records
@ 3600 IN MX 0 example.com.s7a1.psmtp.com
@ 3600 IN MX 1 example.com.s7a2.psmtp.com
@ 3600 IN MX 2 example.com.s7b1.psmtp.com
@ 3600 IN MX 3 example.com.s7b2.psmtp.com
Not Right
If you try to import that into DNS Made Easy, you’ll get a warning that the “@” is unrecognized. By comparing to other zones, you can figure out that you need to change “@” to your domain name, followed by a period:
; A Records
example.com. 3600 IN A 173.140.90.123
; CNAME Records
www 3600 IN CNAME example.com.
autodiscover 3600 IN CNAME autodiscover.outlook.com
lyncdiscover 3600 IN CNAME webdir.online.lync.com
; MX Records
example.com. 3600 IN MX 0 example.com.s7a1.psmtp.com
example.com. 3600 IN MX 1 example.com.s7a2.psmtp.com
example.com. 3600 IN MX 2 example.com.s7b1.psmtp.com
example.com. 3600 IN MX 3 example.com.s7b2.psmtp.com
That file will import fine. But it’s wrong!
Still Not Right
An MX query from your server will append your domain name and return, for example
example.com.s7a1.psmtp.com.example.com
Right
It turns out you need to add a period to the end of all of your records that include a domain name. (Don’t add a period after IP addresses.)
; A Records
example.com. 3600 IN A 173.140.90.123
; CNAME Records
www 3600 IN CNAME example.com.
autodiscover 3600 IN CNAME autodiscover.outlook.com.
lyncdiscover 3600 IN CNAME webdir.online.lync.com.
; MX Records
example.com. 3600 IN MX 0 example.com.s7a1.psmtp.com.
example.com. 3600 IN MX 1 example.com.s7a2.psmtp.com.
example.com. 3600 IN MX 2 example.com.s7b1.psmtp.com.
example.com. 3600 IN MX 3 example.com.s7b2.psmtp.com.
With that configuration, mail started flowing again.
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Thank you, you saved me a bunch of time!